Does anyone out there have the chords for "The Bluebells of Scotland"? Can't be that hard -- but I am stumped particularly by the sad chord in the last line (And it's oh in my heart....etc.). Any help appreciated. The only version of it on the Internet seems to be for dulcimer (and beautiful it must sound, but I am playing guitar).

Peter, here's a link to this song at one of my favorite Internet sites (because it gives sheet music.) I have the book though, so I don't use this site much. Let me know if you want me to analyze this for chords. It seems to be pretty basic...Eb, Ab, Bb and a cmin and amin thrown in. I'm not sure where your "sad" chord is in the last line. I suspect it's not in this arrangement.

Thanks Masato for that great site. Somehow I had missed it in all my sheet music searches. Peter, just let me know what word has the "sad" chord and what key you want it in and I'll try to figure it out. Did I mention that this is one of my favorites?

The version of the Bluebells that I like best is on a record by Alex Campbell, and he believed in keeping the chords to a minimum, and I think it's the straight three chords all the way through. Maybe a relative minor thrown in at one point. But that's the way my musical tastebuds work.

"And(F) it's(G) oh(F) in(G) my(F) heart(C)" - playing in C I'd just do that way. Or maybe "And(C) it's oh(F) in(G) my heart(C)", if I was feeling lazy.

That's a nice site. I'll have to retune my dulcimer to hear the songs, maybe even new strings...but I'm always looking for arrangements that can be played solo...not just the chord changes.

As far as the last line of Blue Bells of Scotland, none of the arrangements I've seen so far have anything unusual in them...just a I, IV, I, V7, I. I'm wondering if you just hear the words as sad, or if it's possible to substitute an umpteenth minor dimished somethingorother chord somewhere.

Sad doesn't have to mean minor chords. As witness Lili Marlene, currently featuring on another thread. And it's not even the words there, because it's even more heartbreaking in German, and I don't understand German.

Weel, Thanks Mary and McGrath, I guess I am doing this in a more complicated (overly?) style -- descending runs in open D (plus capo on the first to Eb) to match Kenneth McKellar (a typically overblown record -- "The BlueBells of Scotland"). I have:

It appears that you are substituting the relative minors for that last chord progression in the last line. I like it. I would, however, like to hear an Emajor instead of eminor on the word "noble". And in the last two chords, throw in an A7 between your eminor and D.

But more importantly (to me) than that last line, is the third line I mentioned above, on your word "banner" I like the bminor, but throw in an Emajor7th on the second syllable (I think) before you hit the A7.

I'm getting confused with the different words and the different keys. If we were to "really" work on this, we would get the same words and use the I, II, III, IV, etc way of naming chords. (All this from someone who learned a lot from your mode threads.) ;-)

Ah suppose, ah suppose that some cruel, cruel wound Should pierce your Highland Laddie's breast, and all your hopes confound! The pipe should play a cheerfu' strain, the banners round him fly, And the spirit of a Highland chief should glister in his eye! The pipe should play, &c.

But I will hope to see him yet in Scotland's bonnie bounds, But I will hope to see him yet in Scotland's bonnie bounds, His native land of liberty will nurse his glorious wounds, While wide through all the Highland hills his warlike name resounds. His native land, &c.*

* This song is the production of Mrs. Grant of Laggan, the writer of a volume of Poetry published several years ago, containing the Highlanders, &c. and of Eighteen Hundred and Thirteen, a Poem. It was composed on occasion of the Marquis of Huntley's departure for the continent with his regiment in the year 1793.